Edward Breathitte Sellers

Who is Edward Breathitte Sellers?

Edward Breathitte Sellers is the first known college graduate of color of Wheaton College and likely the first African American graduate in the state of Illinois.

Edward Breathitte Sellers was said to have been born in Mississippi around 1842. Born and reared in slavery, somehow prior to his matriculating at Wheaton College, he moved to Illinois and listed Shawneetown, Illinois as his home. He appears in the 1860 census for DuPage county and is listed as a laborer. His race is noted as white.

Initially in 1860, he began studies in the Preparatory program as a junior student and progressed to senior standing the following year. In the 1862 Wheaton College Catalog, he is shown to have entered the Collegiate program and is listed as a Freshman.

That same year he joined the Beltionian Literary Society. Founded in 1856, the crimson-clad Belts championed the cause of "striving for the greater and better." It was in the literary society that Sellers was able to hone his oral and written communication skills as he debated his fellow students on topics ranging from economics to ethics, such as the lawfulness of slavery.